What was john Winthrop's reason for venturing to America? Did he and his fellow travelers view their journey to America as a trip into the After john Winthrop sold all of his possessions and arranged to move his whole family from comfortable England to the rugged and dangerous new world. His wife Margaret was expecting a baby, so he decided to leave her and his oldest son at home for the first year while he went with the first group of settlers. He could barely stand the thought of being separated from his beloved wife, so they made an agreement that they would think of each other every Monday and Friday, between 5 and 6 pm. On April 71630, four ships with four hundred people set out from England across the stormy Atlantic. On board the ship, John Winthrop began the keep a diary. This remarkable document was lost after his death, but it resurface one hundred years later. The contents of the diary are astounding. From the ship, Winthrop laid out the Puritan vision for the N!.

             ew World. America was to become a city on a hill. He wrote: The eyes of all people are upon us, so that if we shall deal falsely with our God in this work we have undertaken, and so cause him to withdraw his presents help from us, we shall be made a story and byword throughout the world: we shall open the mouths of enemies to speak evil of worthy servants, and cause their prayers to be turned into curses upon us until we are consumed out of the good land to which we are going. Two months later they arrived in Salem, Massachusetts. The settlers could scarcely believe their eyes. It was a total wilderness; except for a few huts and clearing made by previous settlers, there was nothing but forest. How could they raise crops to supply themselves in the coming winter? Each family that came was suppose to be responsible for bringing their own supplies, but many jumped on board at the last minutes with little or no food; they had to beg for food from others who had little to spare!.